The political arena is ablaze with condemnation regarding poet Natan Zach's statement which compared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's election to Hitler's rise to power in Germany. MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) took the outcry one step further and demanded that the Israel Prize given to Zach for his poetic achievement be withdrawn. The storm began at the start of Israel Radio's morning talk show, where newscaster Yaron Dekel interviewed Zach. The poet harshly attacked the prime minister for not promoting the release of Gilad Shalit and remarked that, "this (lack of progress) is the conduct of your prime minister." Dekel, in response marked the fact that, "he (Netanyahu) is your prime minister as well, elected via democratic conventions." Zach agreed with that fact yet stated that in his opinion,"while Netanyahu is also my prime minister and was elected by a democratic system, Hitler too was elected in a democratic election." Dekel's attempts to make Zach withdraw his comment did not bear fruit. In reply to Dekel's remark regarding the irrelevance of his comment, Zach persisted, saying that, "they are acceptable to me. Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini were all elected democratically." Immediately after the radio broadcast fiasco, a similar outcry began in the political arena. MK Ofir Akunis (Likud) said, "these are blasphemous sayings and they shame the speaker. The public is fed up with so called 'spiritual personas" who do not represent a soul in the Israeli public yet take advantage of any situation wherein they can voice their futile statements." MK Schneller said that, "Zach's old age is clouding his mind." He stated that Israel, which rightly recognized Zach as poet laureate should now also condemn him for his statements which spawned such negativity. "There is no novelty in the way certain cultural personas, belonging to the radical left, hold any democracy that does not reflect their world view in contempt. It is only fitting that law enforcement authorities examine Zach's statements." Schneller added that, "were Zach's comments regarding the prime minister said by any other person, (that person), most probably would be held for questioning on charges of incitement." MK Arieh Eldad (National Union Party) said that, "in comparing Netanyahu to Hitler, Natan Zach has proved that he and a handful of admirers of his political agenda represent the deep-set neurosis existing in Israeli society: auto-anti-Semitism and self-hate." MK Einat Wilf (Haatzma'ut) said that she heard Zach on the live broadcast stating that the citizens of Israel who elected Netanyahu are committing suicide in the same way as the Germans who elected Hitler. Wilf remarked that, "it is apparent that there are those who cannot come to terms with their limited ability to influence [and that the] criticism aimed at the prime minister and minister of defense long ago crossed any reasonable boundary." Members of the Labor party, with whom Zach is associated, forcefully condemned Zach's statements. MK Eitan Cabel, in summation said that "delving into a comparison of the Holocaust and Israel's leadership is unforgivable."
Zach, on the one hand, stated that he was not "drawing a comparison," yet on the other hand, he continued to say that, "democratic elections brought Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin and Mao Zedong to power."
